A new show from Indiana’s WFIU looks to provide more coverage of environmental issues in Indiana and across the nation.
The program, which has a working title of Ecosphere, was pitched to the Bloomington station by leaders of Indiana University’s Prepared for Environmental Change (PfEC) Grand Challenge. The initiative aims to address environmental problems facing Indiana communities and to foster communication about them.
The university, which holds WFIU’s license, considers environmental issues “one of the grand challenges faced in this part of the world, and I think a lot of folks think of environmental issues as one of the grand challenges of our time,” said John Bailey, Ecosphere’s EP and operations director at WFIU. “There’s no better time than now.”
The PfEC will fully fund Ecosphere’s budget, which Bailey said is in the low six figures. The support will cover salaries for a full-time host and two part-time staffers. James Shanahan, who will help develop Ecosphere as dean of The Media School and associate director of the Environmental Resilience Institute at IU, said he expects to find foundation support to continue the program after the initial two-year PfEC grant ends.
